"What sweet and melancholy memories I still have of those days....I look back on the lovely buildings, the orderly flower beds, the mellow roofs of the Salpêtrière and remember how it seemed that the greatest wrought iron gates shut me in with some grand and glorious past. The old-fashioned charm of it all sank deep into my heart." (Jane Avril)
The Salpêtrière
Between December 28th, 1882 (Jane was 15) until July 11th, 1884, Jane Avril was hospitalised at the hospital. Not because of illness, as many would have you believe, but to protect her from her own mother's abuses.
Here Jane describes her experiences and shares her feelings towards her stay at the Salpêtrière.
"I don't know how or why I was put with the women, for my place should have been with the children....I found myself in the great professor Charcot's service, with the stars of hysteria, an ailment which, at that time, was creating a sensation. The foremost medical men, the best known thinkers of the entire world came in droves to attend the courses presided over by the master and to witness the demonstrations and experiments on his most famous subjects...I lived for two years on this "Eden" - which it was for me, so much in this world being relative...There were those deranged girls whose ailments named Hysteria consisted, above all, in simulation of it...How much trouble they used to go to in order to capture attention and gain stardom. That prize went to the one who would find something novel to overshadow the others when Charcot, followed by a large group of students, stood at the bedside and observed their wild contortions, "arcs de cercle," various acrobatics, and other gymnastics...These patients had nothing to hide from little me - I was of so little consequence! - thus they didn't hesitate to let me know about what they used to call "the secret." They gave me the following directions: - "when you see one of them come in, be sure to come to my bed and press hard on my ovaries," It was understood that this simple maneuver would suffice to interrupt the attack immediately, permitting the "patient" - recovering her wits - to have a conversation with the special person of the moment. When they sensed that the time of Charcot's visit was approaching, several threw a fit and I, now that the time had arrived, cooperated by doing what they had requested of me...Often, in the big amphitheater filled to the top, in front of the chiefs of the medical profession from all countries, Charcot gave his course, presenting his strangest "cases" on whom he performed numerous experiments with suggestion."
"For me it was a comic show to see these crazies come away so proud and delighted to have been chosen and pointed to by the "master". In my tiny brain, I was astonished every time to see how such eminent savants could be duped in that way, when I, as insignificant as I was, saw through the farces. I have said to myself since that the great Charcot was aware of what was happening."
"During my stay in this place, I got to know at the debut of their careers professors Poirier, Babinski, Gilbert Ballet, Ch. Richet (Paul Richer), Marie, Voisin and poor Gilles de la Tourette who died prematurely, carried off by the sad disease that he had learned to care for; and doctors Vigouroux and Lalonde (Londe) who administered electrical treatments."
"I have retained a bittersweet memory of the time I spent in that institution. The buildings, the lay-out of the gardens, the large portals which divided the courtyards seemed to me, in a confused way, to evoke a great century. They gave off a grandiose majesty in the style of the great king, Louis XIV. I was happy there and pampered by everybody. The supervisors considered me the child of the house and there was an old-fashioned charm that suited my reveries."
"I cannot understand how these girls - pretty, for the most part - were so stupid and lazy as to shut themselves away from active life and - voluntary recluses - ruin their precious youth in such a way."
Jane Avril Describes as well the famous "Mad Ball"
"One evening that I have never forgotten, a grand holiday, followed by a masked ball, was given in a pavilion of Doctor Voisin. Many future big shots of the medical profession were in attendance. I was disguised as Descente de la Courtille - in a costune furnished by Mlle Jeanne Charcot...I was ashamed to be so carried away by an instinct which, up to that moment, I had never suspected to be in me..." That evening, at the Salpêtrière, Jeanne Beaudon had a revelation of her calling for dance. "Alas, I was cured!"
Taken from Mes Mémoirs (My Memories) by Jane Avril
Published by Phebus 2005
Translation from Bonduelle, Michel and Gelfand, Toby (1999) "Hysteria Behind the Scenes: Jane Avril at the Salpêtrière, Journal of the History of Neurosciences, 8: 1, 35 - 42
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1076/jhin.8.1.35.1778
Here Jane describes her experiences and shares her feelings towards her stay at the Salpêtrière.
"I don't know how or why I was put with the women, for my place should have been with the children....I found myself in the great professor Charcot's service, with the stars of hysteria, an ailment which, at that time, was creating a sensation. The foremost medical men, the best known thinkers of the entire world came in droves to attend the courses presided over by the master and to witness the demonstrations and experiments on his most famous subjects...I lived for two years on this "Eden" - which it was for me, so much in this world being relative...There were those deranged girls whose ailments named Hysteria consisted, above all, in simulation of it...How much trouble they used to go to in order to capture attention and gain stardom. That prize went to the one who would find something novel to overshadow the others when Charcot, followed by a large group of students, stood at the bedside and observed their wild contortions, "arcs de cercle," various acrobatics, and other gymnastics...These patients had nothing to hide from little me - I was of so little consequence! - thus they didn't hesitate to let me know about what they used to call "the secret." They gave me the following directions: - "when you see one of them come in, be sure to come to my bed and press hard on my ovaries," It was understood that this simple maneuver would suffice to interrupt the attack immediately, permitting the "patient" - recovering her wits - to have a conversation with the special person of the moment. When they sensed that the time of Charcot's visit was approaching, several threw a fit and I, now that the time had arrived, cooperated by doing what they had requested of me...Often, in the big amphitheater filled to the top, in front of the chiefs of the medical profession from all countries, Charcot gave his course, presenting his strangest "cases" on whom he performed numerous experiments with suggestion."
"For me it was a comic show to see these crazies come away so proud and delighted to have been chosen and pointed to by the "master". In my tiny brain, I was astonished every time to see how such eminent savants could be duped in that way, when I, as insignificant as I was, saw through the farces. I have said to myself since that the great Charcot was aware of what was happening."
"During my stay in this place, I got to know at the debut of their careers professors Poirier, Babinski, Gilbert Ballet, Ch. Richet (Paul Richer), Marie, Voisin and poor Gilles de la Tourette who died prematurely, carried off by the sad disease that he had learned to care for; and doctors Vigouroux and Lalonde (Londe) who administered electrical treatments."
"I have retained a bittersweet memory of the time I spent in that institution. The buildings, the lay-out of the gardens, the large portals which divided the courtyards seemed to me, in a confused way, to evoke a great century. They gave off a grandiose majesty in the style of the great king, Louis XIV. I was happy there and pampered by everybody. The supervisors considered me the child of the house and there was an old-fashioned charm that suited my reveries."
"I cannot understand how these girls - pretty, for the most part - were so stupid and lazy as to shut themselves away from active life and - voluntary recluses - ruin their precious youth in such a way."
Jane Avril Describes as well the famous "Mad Ball"
"One evening that I have never forgotten, a grand holiday, followed by a masked ball, was given in a pavilion of Doctor Voisin. Many future big shots of the medical profession were in attendance. I was disguised as Descente de la Courtille - in a costune furnished by Mlle Jeanne Charcot...I was ashamed to be so carried away by an instinct which, up to that moment, I had never suspected to be in me..." That evening, at the Salpêtrière, Jeanne Beaudon had a revelation of her calling for dance. "Alas, I was cured!"
Taken from Mes Mémoirs (My Memories) by Jane Avril
Published by Phebus 2005
Translation from Bonduelle, Michel and Gelfand, Toby (1999) "Hysteria Behind the Scenes: Jane Avril at the Salpêtrière, Journal of the History of Neurosciences, 8: 1, 35 - 42
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1076/jhin.8.1.35.1778
Register of Patients admitted to the Hospital of the Salpêtrière
Jane Avril was admitted to the hospital of the Salpêtrière, on the recommendation of a family friend. Jane's birth name, Jeanne Beaudon, first appears in its registers on 28th December 1882. She would stay there for the next 18 months, under the care of the famous Professor Charcot. She was only 14 at the time of entering the hospital.
Craig's Blog - JANE AVRIL OF THE MOULIN ROUGE - Craig's Blog
